The Calgary Food Bank relies heavily on volunteers and every week, Imperial Oil retirees help sort donated food and pack it into hampers for clients.
Peter Baltais has taken responsibility for making sure there are enough volunteers and says it all started when they were still with Imperial and the company held Days of Caring.
“After I retired I was looking for a way to give back to the community and as an individual you had to find a place to help out and go through the screening process and I thought, well why not have a Days of Caring kind of approach with our annuitant club,” said Baltais, from the Esso Resources Annuitants' Club Calgary.
Ivan and Jean Eriksen are members of the Esso Resources Annuitants' Club of Calgary and say it's enjoyable and fulfilling.
“Now that I’m retired I need to fill my day and it's just, if I can help give back to the community what I’ve gained from the community um, it's just an awesome job, I love it here,” said Jean.
Ivan didn't meet Baltais until after they retired from Imperial and says he appreciates all he does for retirees.
“Camaraderie is a big part of it. There's over a thousand of us in the club now and of course there's no way we can know a thousand people but the more we meet the better it is. You know, we can come down here, work for a few hours and go home and feel good about it,” said Ivan.
The club also helps to feed Calgary’s homeless.
“We go to the Drop-in Centre, we go there once a month and cut vegetables and make sandwiches,” said jean.
Baltais says it's never a problem getting club members to volunteer for the work at the food bank.
“We use modern software and we send out an invitation to participate and often it fills up within a day,” he said. “We've had the pleasure of actually interfacing with the clients and that was a really rewarding experience.”
For all he does to help Imperial Oil retirees have those rewarding experiences by getting them to volunteer at the food bank, Peter Baltais is our Inspiring Albertan this week.
(With files from Darrel Janz)
